I can honestly say that currently this is the best it's been since the early 2000's. The last few months have been absolutely stellar. The Summerslam card looks excellent with every match announced harboring my interest.

The Punk/Lesnar/Heyman programme has been exceptional, the story of the underdog surviving against the odds works brilliantly.

My only reservation is that they're not completely pulling the trigger on Bryan. The build has been good, but could have been better. I was really hoping on last nights RAW for Bryan to completely rebel against the McMahons - claiming something along the lines of - that he will make Cena tap and Vince will have to live with him as WWE champion. Instead of being red hot, it was all sort of tepid...a mild rebellion.

Also I really think Cena will retain at Summerslam. The (utterly excellent) PWtorch podcast I subscribe to nailed it, "WWE's mentality is to have their guy go over the internet/Indy guy, Brian said he would wrestle in gutters and bingo halls and Cena said he would never wrestle again because he is WWE for life"

Side note: The Miz is the worst babyface wrestler I have witnessed since I started watching in '94.

I was on this up until January, since I have only caught Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble and Payback.
The main thing that stood out is that the fans fucking loved "feed me more" anti-hero Ryback and they ruined it by changing him to "Ryback rules" evil Ryback.

They seem to want to keep Cena as top dog, they want him to be Hogan/Heart/Rock of this generation, but he just isnt and turning popular wrestlers seems a shit choice.

Im a bit out of the loop as I havent seen this in a few years bar 'Mania, but I can not understand what they are doing with Cena. He is utter garbage and they would be far better turning him heel (I'm assuming he hasnt changed) than keeping that ridiculous 'lets go Cena/Cena sucks' chant that is so prevalent everytime hes around. Shows the fans dont rate him. I understand he sells merch to the kids but surely a better overall product would be far better business sense.

Why turn him? He's already a heel to half the audience, is by far their biggest merch seller and does alot of charity work for them which would be compromised. Just think of him as a delusional heel who thinks he's a face.

As much as I agree that he's garbage, they can't turn Cena heel and it's likely they never will, there's no one that shifts anywhere near as much merch and gets all the kids and lasses watching. It will only be done when they have someone that can replace him. Bryan and Punk are getting there, but aren't on his level just yet.

As much as I agree that he's garbage, they can't turn Cena heel and it's likely they never will, there's no one that shifts anywhere near as much merch and gets all the kids and lasses watching. It will only be done when they have someone that can replace him. Bryan and Punk are getting there, but aren't on his level just yet.

That's the CM Punk who topped Cena as merch shifter supreme back in 2011?

I honestly think that they could turn Cena heel for a short time and make him bigger than ever. Hulk Hogan went heel. The Rock went heel. Do it right and Cena becomes a mega face.

Edit - the thing is he's one of the most fantastic heels I've ever seen. It's such a wasted opportunity.

as some one who generally watches for a couple of months, then drifts away before coming back, I really enjoy Cena's work. I take it a lot of people are pretty sick of him though and fair enough; how long has he been on top for? ridiculously long run. has had some pretty entertaining fights too i reckon.

having said that, when i tune in i most look forward to seeing the likes of bryan, punk and sandow.

speaking of sandow, i'm liking the start of his feud with rhodes, but it's a bit worrying that the crowd didn't really seem to give a shit last week. probably a bit too silly with the seaweedy suitcase and waterlogged contract. too much wrasslin logic that cody if cody keeps the logic if cody gets to keep the contract because he stole it (or even if they have a match for it), and probably not the best way to get over as a good guy. but i do like both guys on the mike, and like their silly facial hairstyles even better, so.

Cena is perfectly fine a cross the board but I find he (as in his character) lacks a bit of soul. I don't like or dislike him, he isn't bad or good he just is.

He lacks a rival, which tbf isn't his fault. I did think Ryback and Cena could have had a good too and fro going but that doesn't seem to have happened. The Rock rivalry was good but obviously couldn't develop much due to Rock's lack of regular presence.

I also think he doesn't do that beaten up, desperate acting too well either, always looks a bit too comfy.

To be fair, for somebody who is garbage Cena has still managed to be in lot of classic matches over the last 10 years and he could be a great heel (he was as The Prototype in OVW in a tag team with Rico Constantino). At the moment though he is best suited to being face, as more than being the guy on top he is also the figurehead of the 'PG' era and has made over 300 'make a wish' appearances (WWE like the good publicity). Maybe if Brock hadn't quit during his first run or even if they hadn't botched Austin's heel turn (that led to a decline in merch sales and live show attendance) things would be different, but for now things are likely to remain with the status quo.

That being said, the main problem for me with his character is with the quality of his promos. If you've just lost a title match, you should care, it should come across, you shouldn't come out, shrugging it off and acting like you haven't got a care in the world. They started doing the same thing with Seamus and it doesn't work with him either. Why after all should I give a shit about the titles if the guys feuding over them don't either?

That being said if you're main reason for watching WWE is match quality, you'd be better off checking out New Japan at the moment, day 4 of the G1 tournament was possibly the greatest PPV of the last decade.

Cena's problem is that he's a goody two shoes. This 'the people can cheer for whoever they want' bullshit makes him sound utterly pathetic. No. Be pissed off that we don't cheer for you. Be outright mad. Go watch a Mick Foley promo, come back and cut one on the fans that boo you.

Hell, admit that you aren't much of a wrestler. This isn't a bad thing. Embrace the one thing you are incredible at though, which is being a brawler.Triple H is a brawler. The Undertaker is a brawler. Stone Cold was a brawler. Piper was a brawler. Vader was a brawler. Brock Frigging Lesnar is a brawler, and he was a amateur wrestler!

To be fair, for somebody who is garbage Cena has still managed to be in lot of classic matches over the last 10 years and he could be a great heel (he was as The Prototype in OVW in a tag team with Rico Constantino). At the moment though he is best suited to being face, as more than being the guy on top he is also the figurehead of the 'PG' era and has made over 300 'make a wish' appearances (WWE like the good publicity). Maybe if Brock hadn't quit during his first run or even if they hadn't botched Austin's heel turn (that led to a decline in merch sales and live show attendance) things would be different, but for now things are likely to remain with the status quo. That being said, the main problem for me with his character is with the quality of his promos. If you've just lost a title match, you should care, it should come across, you shouldn't come out, shrugging it off and acting like you haven't got a care in the world. They started doing the same thing with Seamus and it doesn't work with him either. Why after all should I give a shit about the titles if the guys feuding over them don't either? That being said if you're main reason for watching WWE is match quality, you'd be better off checking out New Japan at the moment, day 4 of the G1 tournament was possibly the greatest PPV of the last decade.

Agreed he's been in some great matches, but the bolded bit above is why you could make a case for him being as bad for the WWE as he is good, how many story lines has he rubbished by goofing off on his promo's? The list of heel's he's totally buried is endless, and it's not WWE scripting him, its his embarrassing childish ad-libing. Saying this, when he does bother to take his opponent seriously, such as he did with Punk, he's absolutely great.

Still they shouldn't turn him heel. In response to Dante; when they turned the Rock heel they had Austin/Lesnar/Angle/HHH/HBK/Taker on the active roster, all who could play top tier faces. They now have Randy Orton, Daniel Bryan and CM Punk, out of these, only Punk can give Cena a run for his money in terms of being over. Why turn him heel when there is no one to replace him? If Bryan and Punk really manage to get over big by Wrestlemania, then I'd say turn him then.

Dogfingers, Bryan is the most over guy in the company. have punk and Jericho face, push ziggler as strong as they did henry, and move heaven and earth to bring baack angle to face off against cena. Job done

Tbf, Taker is as popular with the kids as Cena. It would be interesting to see their reactions.

Cena would only beat Taker clean though, because ANYONE who cheats to end the streak is assured heel heat for the remainder of their lives. And probably any kids they have too. Maybe grandkids too. Were he not independently wealthy, JBL would have been the perfect man for the job.

The streak is the single most important asset WWE have. The streak sells Wrestlemania, and they will not throw it away on a star such as Cena. It will either never die, and we continue to have cash grab matches like HBK/HHH/SES (Punk, but abbreviating Straight Edge Saviour is the only way I can keep up the pleasing 3 letter acronym there), or they pass the torch and bet the farm on an up and comer.

Yar it's an excellent ace in the hole if another wrestling organisation starts getting big or whatever but I think it's fairly crown jewels otherwise.

When Hogan went bad and created nWo in WCW that really gave a shot in the arm vs WWF. It went a bit stale because for the next 9 months Monday Nitro (night raw - ooer) ended with sting showing up all crow, black out/not black out, baseball batting everyone - stalemate. but that initial thing was immense.

If you break the taker you need a real hero to break the monster who (must have cheated) to do it (maybe the Rock?)